SeeSaw gets a reprieve, bought by Bebo owners

Criterion snaps up the VoD service

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UK VoD platform SeeSaw is to be brought back online, with the owners of Bebo buying up the service.

Criterion, the company behind the buyout, has enlisted an elite group of entertainment execs to head up SeeSaw, including Michael Jackson. No, not that Michael Jackson, but the one which was chief executive of Channel 4.

Alongside Jackson, Dan Adler will be a strategic advisor for the service, bringing his experience from his past endeavours at ABC and Disney.

Vital role

"The TV industries in the UK and abroad will continue to be reshaped in ways no one can quite predict, however it is clear that web-delivered programming will play a vital role in that transformation," said Jackson about the re-emergence of SeeSaw.

"The technology behind SeeSaw is world class and the group behind the bid has a great mix of entrepreneurial and industry experience."

SeeSaw has had a rather up and down time of it of late. It launched in February 2010, out of what was Project Kangaroo, but its prior owner Arqiva stopped funding the venture when it has a strategic review.

Arqiva is still part of SeeSaw, however, with the company retaining a 25 per cent stake in the VoD platform.